Page 14 of Captivated By Him

“And she turned you down?” Dominik adds.

“I never even tried. Married women are off limits.” I pour another drink.

“How is the construction going?” my father asks while stuffing another crab cake in his mouth. Considering the amount of food I see him chomping down, he’s thinner than before. His hair has lost all of its color and even his face seems more ashen than the last time I saw him. It’s summer, and he hates the Chicago heat, but he needs to get outside more.

“Good.” I nod. “They’ll be done on time. We’ve started to get some advertising and marketing in place for the opening.” Just mentioning the subject brings my mind back to Nicole. What really has brought her back to Chicago? And, more important, what dragged her off to New York to begin with?

We weren’t together long, a month maybe, but I deserved better than a text message telling me she was going out of town. Only to have another text message a week later telling me she was staying put in New York.

“Good. Once the construction’s done, we’ll send the plans over for the new warehouse,” Dominik says.

“What new warehouse?” I ask.

“Not new, really, just tearing down the old one and putting up a new one,” Dominik explains. “Now that we have the construction union on our side, we have to keep them working. If you don’t feed the machine it stops.” He doesn’t need to explain any further. As much as I hate not knowing everything that’s going on, some days I don’t envy my older brother.

“Where’s Kasia?” I only now realize she’s not here with the baby.

“Dominika’s not feeling well again. Kasia stayed home with her,” Dominik explains.

“Do you need a doctor?” my father asks, concern weighing his words. The man is in control over who lives and dies within the world we live, but it only takes his granddaughter having a sniffle to expose his weakness.

“Kasia took her. It’s an ear infection, she’ll be fine. She’s just being fussy and Kasia didn’t want to leave her with anyone tonight.”

“Hmm, maybe she’s finally seen the error of her ways and has decided to use this opportunity to pack a bag and run away,” I tease. Kasia loves my stubborn brother too much to dream of doing such a thing.

“Why do you tease him when you can’t keep a woman in your bed for longer than a week?” My father jabs me with his elbow. “Kasia has proven to be a good addition to this family.”

I stare at my brother. “You need Daddy to come to your defenses now?”

“Like children,” my father grumbles.

“Don’t listen to him, I’m sure Kasia still likes you,” Lena joins in the teasing. Between the four of us, it has always been Lena and me against them. It wasn’t hard. After our mother passed away Dominik took a more paternal role with our little sister. She didn’t need a second father; she just needed someone to have fun with. Which is exactly what the second son gets to do.

“What did I miss?” Micah enters the room from the door leading from the kitchen and makes his way to Lena. He kisses her gently on her cheek before sitting on the chair on the other side of her. Dominik tenses at his presence. Micah has proven he is to be trusted, and our little sister has come to love him, but he is still a reminder of our inability to protect Lena when she needed it most.

“Nothing.” My father waves over the waitresses that have entered the room with our dishes. “Dinner’s here.”

“You only missed Jakub making fun of Dominik.”

Micah moves his amused eyes from me to our big brother. “Oh?”

“Now that you’re here, I’m sure he’ll switch to annoying you,” Dominik assures Micah and takes his plate of bratwurst and red cabbage from the server.

“I have nothing to tease him over,” I announce as my phone buzzes from my pocket. I let it go to voicemail.

“Maybe how much he loves your little sister? How he still stares at her as though she’s hung the damn moon for him?” Dominik eggs me on, but he knows I won’t engage with Micah. Besides, tonight I’m not in the mood for much else. Nicole is working at the club right now. A private party was booked, and she wanted to be the one to oversee it, even though she’d already worked all day on the marketing plans for the cigar bar.

“Jakub needs to find himself his Lena,” my father says, pushing his plate away.

“I do not,” I announce firmly. He’s given me this lecture before, and I’m not having it now. “I am fine the way I am. Kasia and Dominik have already given you a granddaughter and by the way Micah is looking down Lena’s damn dress, I’m sure she’ll be pregnant by morning with your first grandson.”

“Jakub!” Lena shoves my arm.

“I’m not joking, Jakub.” My father turns to me, his eyes full of seriousness and his jaw tense. “I won’t be alive forever. Before I go, I want to see all my children married. And grandchildren would be nice. More than just Dominika. I want a houseful of grandchildren. And your brother, he may never have a son, then what? Dominika is a smart baby, but she cannot run the Staszek family.”

I look at his untouched plate. Only moments ago, he complained of being hungry, but since the food has arrived his appetite has fled.

“Since you’re going to live at least two more decades, I’d say I have time. And Dominik will get his perfect wife knocked up with an entire baseball team until he gets that boy you want so badly. And if not, there’s always Lena.”

---